Tales Woven

food intolerances

Some of my food issues were confirmed. Fat, especially hot fat (a touch of melted butter on a piece of toast, the dollop of olive oil used for sautéing veggies) doesn’t agree with my system. It could be lard or canola oil. Lean red meat or dash of olive oil on mixed greens. Lamb (one of the 2 “safe” foods from my total elimination diet) or non nonfat sour cream. As far as my digestive system is concerned, fat is fat, and that’s that. Kinda cans the Mediterranean diet for me.

Acidic foods like tart apples, tomatoes, vinegars, and oranges, even eaten in small quantities (a bit of salsa as a condiment, a small relatively sweet clementine orange) make my already unbalanced tummy much more acidic. Even with prescription and non-prescription acid blockers, my insides can feel bathed in battery-acid.

I get the “hungry hollows” even when I’m not hungry. These extremely sharp pains are a probably a result of stomach acid “sloshing” around without food to cut it. Certainly, when a scope was done several years ago, there were scars on my esophagus and stomach lining from “acid burns.”

Three of the stranger symptoms of my over-acidic digestive system and the resulting acid reflux issues are wheeziness, tightness in my chest, and a lump at the back of my throat. I thought these were being caused by various things such as my allergies, or the return of childhood asthma-like symptoms. I was on meds for my acid reflux, so my doctor and I never made the connection. Until I switched acid reflux meds, and these symptoms “miraculously” disappeared! I now judge the acidity of my tummy by these markers as much as by acid reflux itself.

My system may have an issue with carbs or starch beyond the simple eat too much of these = gain weight. For example, the weight gain when switching out yeast-based bread for potatoes or the lack of improvement in my overall health when removing gluten, or yeast and sugar.

Anecdotally, gluten and starch have been cited as contributing to pain. I’ve read many accounts of a lessening of pain by reducing/eliminating consumption of gluten, carbs, and starch.

And, now for the big “reveal,” as if you hadn’t already figured it out ;)

And, the biggest culprit is probably, gasp, sugar, in ALL it’s forms. The biggest worsening of symptoms was when I went off the “little or no sucrose sugar and very little milk sugar diet”. Issues such as bloating/distention were much more “obvious” for the days following than before (although abdominal bloating/distention remained an issue no matter what food was eliminated). I need to note that I’m not lactose intolerant. In the past, using lactose-free products or lactose-intolerance diet aids made no difference.

Probably some of the reasons other eliminations didn’t “work” was because sugar was still present in some form or another. For example, when I’ve gone totally gluten-free, my consumption of sugar probably went up as a lot of gluten-free products rely on sugar for taste. And, I did embrace gluten-free brownies!

I crave sugar like an addict. Food addiction can be a sign of intolerance. While I can crave other foods such as bread, salty snacks or red meat, it’s not with the same intensity or need. I can easily descend into a sugar binge. Although I only like dark chocolate, I think it’s the still the sugar effect as I don’t like it too bittersweet.

Next, I need to wean myself off the fruit I’ve been substituting for sucrose. When I’ve eaten very little fruit in the past, along with a reduction in carbs and sugar, there was a more noticeable improvement in certain digestive issues.

Starch rather than carbs per se might be an issue – hence gaining weight when eliminated bread, but increased potato consumption.

I will be trying elimination diets again; I’ve found some new ones to follow. The biggie that I have yet to give up entirely is my morning cuppa joe with cream. Caffeine is one of the “must be eliminated food groups.” Right now, dealing with the massive headache and other withdrawal symptoms (have tried to give it up before!) seems too much to deal with.

If reducing all the “oses” in terms of sugar, and removing other common offenders still doesn’t help with how I feel, then I might be FORCED to give it up. I will warn everyone who will come in contact with me in the virtual and real world when I do that. I know I will be cranky!

Note: I’ve pretty much been eating at will the last 2 weeks, and paying the consequences. Now, everything I eat causes extreme bloating/distention and cramps. My “hungery hollows” make me nauseous with abdominal distention if I ignore them for too long; but eating makes other aspects hurt worse, and does nothing to lessen the weight I’ve gained from meds and elimination diets!

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